ST. LOUIS — Nearly 40 percent of American nuns have been sexually abused or harassed, according to a little-noticed 1998 study that was reported by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The study, paid for by several women’s religious orders and conducted at St. Louis University, found that a “minimum” of 34,000 sisters had been either sexually abused, exploited or harassed, sometimes by other nuns or priests.
The study of 1,164 nuns was intentionally kept quiet under an agreement with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a national umbrella group representing 75,000 nuns.
Nearly 20 percent of nuns said they had been sexually abused as children, with the abuse at the hands of priests or nuns in 9 percent of cases. One in eight nuns said they had been sexually exploited or pressured for sex.
Almost one in 10 nuns said they had been sexually harassed since becoming a nun, with half of the cases involving other nuns or church officials.
LCWR Executive Director Carole Shinnick said there was no cover-up to the study; she said the sisters want to avoid it being “sensationalized” by the media. She said there were “few surprises” in the study because nuns have been dealing with abuse for decades.
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